When it comes to securing medical devices against cyberattacks and defending patients’ protected health information, medical device manufacturers and health delivery organizations (HDOs) are fighting the same fight—but they might not always be on the same page.

The new Healthcare & Med Device Cyber Security Series, which kicks off April 26 in the Twin Cities, MN area, hopes to change that, as well as bring organizations ranging from the biggest players in the industry to small startups to the table. The three-part series will explore cybersecurity best practices and highlight ways device makers and HDOs can work together to provide innovative technologies that meet postmarket security challenges, according to Ken Hoyme, who is chairing the series.

“Much progress is being made by larger organizations in improving the posture of healthcare cybersecurity. But those with the resources to participate in the definition of the problems and possible solutions are the larger players—both in the medical device and hospital spaces. We also want to attract the smaller players, many of which reside in the Twin Cities area,” said Hoyme, director of product and engineering systems security at Boston Scientific and a member of AAMI’s Device Security Working Group. “We intend for attendees to come out of this series with actionable items they can return to their organizations to implement, and the knowledge of where to go to get more information and help.”

The April 26 session at Medtronic’s Mounds View, MN campus will focus on device manufacturing cybersecurity issues, such as leveraging software bill of materials, malware prevention, and device patching. It will be followed by a July 26 session concentrating on healthcare system management of medical devices, which includes working with manufacturers to define security requirements and managing and responding to incidents. Finally, both types of organizations will come together on October 22 in a collaborative final session that will serve as a pre-event workshop to Cyber Security Summit 2018.

“Attendees at last year’s workshop asked for more ‘actionable content.’ This series will be less about defining problems and more about what can be done to solve them,” Hoyme said.

AAMI members are eligible for a 15% discount on single sessions or the entire Healthcare & Med Device Cyber Security Series using the code MED15. Registration for the April 26 session ends April 19.